


Once Upon A Dream

by queenssaviour



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Enchanted Forest, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/F, Swan Queen Week, Swan Queen Week Winter 2017
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-03
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-09-21 15:58:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9556109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenssaviour/pseuds/queenssaviour
Summary: “You probably aren’t real, though, but I’m grateful for your help. Thank you,” Regina says and offers Emma her hand. Emma doesn’t take it, slightly offended by the implication that she’s not real.“I’m not real? I’m very real. How do I know you’re real?”“Don’t be preposterous,” Regina retorts as she pulls her hand back. “People can meet other real people in their dreams only if there’s magic involved or if they’re soulmates. Everyone knows that.”Emma knows about the latter part. Everyone knows that you can meet your soulmate in your dreams. People in the Enchanted Forest hold soulmates and the love you could share with them in very high regard; people who are able to meet their soulmates both in their dreams and face-to-face, and even marry them, have always been considered the luckiest ones of all.In which Emma and Regina are soulmates in the Enchanted Forest.Written for Swan Queen Week, Days four and five (Soulmate AU and Enchanted Forest AU).





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [coalitiongirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/coalitiongirl/gifts).



> For Mari because she has made me love soulmate AUs and recently talked about soulmate AU prompts with me! Thank you. Also many thanks to Tris for beta reading this and the new mod of SQW for organizing this event!! <3 I miraculously managed to write something even though my life has been really busy after moving to the US, so here we go! 
> 
> (Trigger warning for abusive mother Cora.)

Emma sees her soulmate for the first time when she’s thirteen years old.

 

She doesn’t realize it’s her soulmate then, obviously. She’s thirteen and not looking for a soulmate. One of her biggest concerns is having enough to eat and the merchants’ kids making fun of her when she’s just trying to help out and take care of their horses. She helps out a couple of times a week, which gives her a break from the everyday hustle of the orphanage, but the rich kids end up picking on her because of her saggy clothes and old glasses and the fact that she doesn’t have parents to go back to after she’s finished working.

 

It happens when she’s having one of her usual nightmares featuring the merchants’ kids. Cruella rips off her glasses and steps on them so that Emma will be unable to wear them altogether before asking her why she hasn’t found a home.

 

“Her parents didn’t want her, so why would anyone else?” Ursula mutters behind her, and it really hurts. It’s her biggest insecurity, and she can see no one else from the orphanage there; just people laughing at her until she’s crying and trying to run away. She soon realizes she can’t even manage to do that because her road is blocked and she’s slumping on the ground, her eyes covered with her hands that get wet from her tears.

 

“Go away. Leave!” says a voice she doesn’t recognize, and when she’s finally brushed her tears away, the bullies are nowhere to be seen and she’s faced with a girl about her age wearing a blue riding suit that looks more expensive than anything Emma – or any of the other kids in the orphanage – has ever owned. The girl looks awkward as she shifts her weight from one leg to another and her dark brow scrunches in worry.

 

“Are you okay?” the girl finally asks before taking off her gloves and offering Emma her hand.

 

Emma takes it with some hesitation; she doesn’t trust people easily, not when they seem to push her down more often than not. The only random act of kindness from a stranger that she can remember was the Blue Fairy answering her calls when she was eight years old and giving her a magic bean that could take her to another realm when things got too hard. She just hasn’t quite reached that point yet; she has always fought and held her head high and punched back if necessary. She still has that bean that can take her to another world.

 

“I’m fine,” she lies and stands up with the girl’s help. “Who are you?”

 

The girl hesitates before answering, “Regina,” and clamping her mouth shut.

 

“I’m Emma,” she says, and now that she’s actually facing the girl, she can see that she’s really pretty. Emma wishes she was this pretty too. She stumbles upon her words as she utters a “thank you” and finally lets go of the girl’s hand.

 

Sadly, that is when one of the babies sleeping in the same room as her starts crying and Emma is wide awake, unable to go back to sleep and continue the conversation with her new friend.

 

* * *

 

 

Emma is fifteen the second time they meet. She’s exploring a castle she’s found while trekking in the woods of her dream land. She’s quietly walking down a brightly-lit corridor when she hears a petrifying scream from one of the rooms nearby. She takes a sword from one of the sets of armor on the wall and runs towards the source of the sound, not even considering running away.

 

The sight in front of her upon entering the room makes her blood run cold. Regina – the same girl she’d seen in her dream a couple of years ago – is restrained by branches up in the air while a red-haired woman whose back is turned to Emma is waving her hands and lecturing her.

 

Emma doesn’t hesitate, but throws the sword towards the woman’s turned back. It hits her and the woman disappears just like the branches that had been holding Regina up just moments ago. That’s when Emma realizes she must be dreaming again, because if this were real, the woman’s body would be bleeding right in front of them.

 

Nevertheless, Emma still runs towards Regina, wanting to make sure the other girl is okay, even if this is only a dream. When Emma approaches her, she can see her coughing and holding her throat.

 

She looks at Regina for a while before crouching down and offering her a hand. Regina looks at her incredulously but takes her hand anyway when she’s stopped coughing and lets Emma pull her up.

 

“We need to stop meeting like this,” Emma says, and Regina smiles, _smiles,_ despite what has just happened. Her smile might quite possibly be the most beautiful thing Emma has ever seen, and her brain short circuits for a moment.

 

“Wait,” Regina says, her face suddenly full of concern. “Mother!”

 

_Mother?_

 

It takes Emma a moment to realize that the person she just killed in this dream world is Regina’s mother. She runs after Regina, who’s now where the woman had been standing a moment ago.

 

“It’s okay,” Emma says carefully as she walks towards the girl. “This is only a dream. I swear.”

 

Regina turns back to her, her gaze dubious. She studies Emma’s face for a while before nodding. “You must be right. There’s no chance you could’ve done that to Mother without her being able to stop it. You can’t do anything without her knowing.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Dreams are where I escape, but sadly the ones she makes an appearance in often turn into nightmares.”

 

“I’m sorry,” Emma says. She is. Having a parent like Regina’s mother can’t be much better than having no parents at all.

 

“It’s not your fault,” Regina says, shaking her head. “I thought I’d never see you again. It’s been a while…”

 

“Me neither.”

“You probably aren’t real, though, but I’m grateful for your help. Thank you,” Regina says and offers Emma her hand. Emma doesn’t take it, slightly offended by the implication that she’s not real.

 

“I’m not real? I’m very real. How do I know you’re real?”

 

“Don’t be preposterous,” Regina retorts as she pulls her hand back. “People can meet other real people in their dreams only if there’s magic involved or if they’re soulmates. Everyone knows that.”

 

Emma knows about the latter part. Everyone knows that you can meet your soulmate in your dreams. People in the Enchanted Forest hold soulmates and the love you could share with them in very high regard; people who are able to meet their soulmates both in their dreams and face-to-face, and even marry them, have always been considered the luckiest ones of all.

 

“I don’t know how to use magic,” Emma responds truthfully. If she did, she wouldn’t have had such a miserable childhood.

 

“I don’t either” Regina admits. “Mother does, and I don’t want anything to do with it.”

 

Emma is about to respond, but suddenly she’s awake and being told she needs to take care of one of the little ones because Granny, the new head of the orphanage, has fallen ill.

 

* * *

 

 

After that, she sees Regina more frequently. It’s not a thing that happens every night, not by a long shot, but every time Emma is having a nightmare, it gets better when Regina appears. They become friends of sorts, and they have a connection that’s hard to ignore; Emma feels like no one has ever actually understood her like Regina does. Even though the other girl’s life seems to get harder as the years pass, she still tells Emma how lucky she is to have someone who sees her just as Regina instead of the lady her mother is pampering her up to be.

 

It takes her a while to really realize and admit that they both must be real. She starts thinking their meetings over and pays attention to the little things that make her interactions with Regina different from the ones with other people she sees in her dreams. Where most of her dreams usually stay in her subconscious after she wakes up and don’t feel real once she’s awake, her encounters with Regina feel as real as her interactions with anyone when she’s not sleeping.

 

Then, a few days before Emma’s eighteenth birthday, they meet when neither of them is having a nightmare. It’s a sunny day and Emma’s walking near the same castle again until she sees someone riding a horse and she stops dead in her tracks. She recognizes the rider as Regina as soon as her eyes first land on her; it’s impossible not to recognize the girl in the light blue riding clothes that are similar to the ones the girl was wearing when they first met.

 

Regina seems to spot her soon enough. She pulls the reins before guiding her horse towards Emma, her expression breaking into a smile that’s so beautiful that for a moment Emma thinks the girl can’t possibly be real and that she’s just a product of her subconscious.

 

“Emma!” Regina says once there’s practically no distance between them anymore. “What a pleasant surprise.”

 

“Yeah, I thought we only meet in the face of impending doom,” Emma quips back as she turns her head around to make sure that there isn’t in fact any elements of a dream turned into a nightmare approaching.

 

The meadow seems quiet, however, and Regina’s smiling as she dismounts the horse she’s been riding. She does it with such grace that Emma is fairly certain that Regina rides in real life, too, no matter that this is actually a dream. Emma is not bad with horses since she’s taken care of the ones near the orphanage for quite a few years now, but she’s still enthralled by the way Regina was riding the horse just moments ago.

 

“It would appear that we’re good for now,” Regina says, a smile still on her lips. “Do you need to be elsewhere?”

 

“No.” _Absolutely not._ It’s been far too long since Emma has last seen Regina. The way everyone keeps talking about soulmates now that they’re older, especially a few girls Emma interacts with on a regular basis, has made Emma all the more certain that Regina could be hers.

 

Everyone expects her soulmate to be a man, though. The last time she participated in a conversation about soulmates, Tiana had asked her if Emma had found _him_ yet. Emma had responded that she didn’t think so, but at the back of her mind she knew her soulmate wouldn’t be a man, like Tiana’s. The girl had met a boy, Naveen, he was called, in a dream where the boy had been a frog until they had kissed.

 

“Would you like to enjoy the sun for a bit before one of us wakes up again?” Regina asks, breaking Emma’s trip down to the memory lane.

 

“Yeah, of course.”

 

They end up lying down next to each other on the grass of the dream world. It doesn’t look that much different from that of the Enchanted Forest; the trees on the edge of the forest look the same and the sun on Emma’s skin feels warm and familiar. All of that still feels fake compared to the presence of Regina  – her voice, her smile, and her eyes are undoubtedly the most realistic thing in the dream.

 

“My Mother threatened to use magic on me again today,” Regina says after a moment of silence.

 

“She did?” Emma asks. She’s not particularly surprised, considering that Regina seems to have nightmares about her mother physically assaulting her with magic on a regular basis, but she’s still terrified to have the confirmation that Regina has to deal with that in real life.

 

“Yes,” the girl says, her eyes not meeting Emma’s. “She came to the stables and told me once again that I rode like a man and should watch out or no man will want to marry me. Then proceeded  to tell me that I should start watching out for the sun, too, since men want a bride with light skin.”

 

Emma shudders. She wants to punch Regina’s mother in the face. Multiple times. How dare she tell Regina she should marry? How dare she imply that Regina is anything else than perfect the way she is? How dare she-

 

“When I said I don’t care about any of that, she told me that she’d keep me on the path that she’s chosen for me and reminded me how she definitely has the means to do so.” Regina sighs. “I panicked and said I promise to be good, but I just don’t want to marry anyone she has planned. I just want to be free.”

 

“I’m so sorry."

 

Regina stays quiet for a while before whispering a small "thank you."

 

"Would she care about you finding your soulmate?” Emma says, knowing that it’s a long shot when Regina’s mother is what she is.

 

“No.” Regina shakes her head. “She once told me that she found hers but didn’t care about that. She’s been teaching me that love like that is weakness.That it keeps you from achieving great things and being focused on your goals.”

 

“You know she’s wrong, right?” Emma asks. Even though she’s felt neither particularly wanted nor loved in her life, she does not want to believe that love would actually be weakness. It should be seen as strength.

 

“Yes,” Regina says as she gets up on her elbow and turns to look at Emma. “I know she is. I’ve heard that true love shared by soulmates is the most powerful magic of all. She just doesn’t understand.”

 

Emma is mesmerized by Regina’s beauty as the other girl looks down at her, her face encircled by sunbeams. She’s smiling and there are strands of loose hair coming out of her braid, and before Emma knows, Regina has moved so close to her that she can feel the other girl’s breath against her lips.

 

“I’m really glad I met you, Emma,” Regina says.

 

“Yeah, me too,” Emma responds, and it may not be the most eloquent reply she’s come up with, but she’s shocked that she manages to answer anything at all when Regina is _so_ close to her.

 

Their first kiss is chaste and short. Regina pecks Emma’s lips before Emma has time to respond and then she pulls away and meets Emma’s eyes.

 

“Was that okay?” Regina asks quietly, her dark eyes searching Emma’s face.

 

“Yeah,” Emma says, her voice hoarse. She can’t believe she’s dreaming. Regina’s lips felt so real against hers, and she wants nothing more than to kiss her again properly.

 

“Can I… can I kiss you again?” Regina asks her.

 

“Yeah,” Emma repeats, because she seems to have lost her ability to reply anything else.

 

Regina moves closer to her again and brings their lips together. This time, the kiss lasts longer, Regina’s mouth lingering on hers and their lips moving slowly against each other. Emma feels a bit awkward as she wonders if she’s kissing Regina right, but the girl doesn’t show any sign of discomfort, so she’s probably doing okay.

 

When one of Regina’s hands tangles in her hair and the girl slightly pulls Emma’s bottom lip between hers, Emma freezes and almost forgets to breathe. Regina seems to notice her reaction as she pulls back and looks at her with worry in her eyes.

 

“Are you alright?”

 

“Yeah,” she responds.

 

“Are you sure? You haven’t replied anything else other than _yeah_ for a while now.”

 

“I’m fine,” she says. “I just… I just really wanna kiss you again, and I don’t wanna wake up.”

 

Regina’s worried expression turns into smile as she moves closer. “Just don’t wake up, then.”

 

Their next kiss is more deep, more powerful, and soon Emma’s hands are on Regina’s neck and Regina’s stroking Emma’s cheek as their lips move together and content hums leave their mouths. She never wants to stop kissing Regina. If she wasn’t sure about finding her soulmate before, she is sure now. Regina feels so real and so right and Emma _has_ to be with her outside this dream world. She can’t live her life knowing that she has a soulmate who she could see every day instead of occasionally in a dream world. That she could finally have a home with someone.

 

“I wanna be with you,” Emma breathes into the kiss.

 

She regrets her words a second later when Regina stops kissing her. _No, no, no._ She went too far. No one ever stayed in her life. Not really. Maybe Regina was just too good to be true. Maybe she’d eventually be better off with the life her mother had mapped out for her: a financially stable lady married off to a nobleman instead of an orphan girl no one ever wanted.

  
“I heard a small castle close to King Leopold’s was looking for a new stablehand,” Regina says, and Emma doesn’t have time to ask anything else, because that’s when she wakes up.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk. i felt like i should update since it's been like... half a year.......... anyway. 
> 
> i'm sorry i've been so bad at replying to comments lately. i've been concentrating on rl stuff and i'll reply now!
> 
> thanks to tris for beta reading!

Emma tries to meet Regina again with little success. She thinks of Regina quite a bit – of how she felt, sounded, and looked – but she doesn’t see her in her dreams again. A week later, just after her eighteenth birthday, she decides that it’s time for her to leave the little village she has spent the last few years of her life in. She needs to see Regina again, and a nearby castle that needs a stablehand is her only lead. She’s certain she won’t otherwise be able to talk to Regina for _months_.

 

She keeps quiet about her leaving, assuring everyone that she has figured out what she wants – to be a stablehand for a well-off family not far away from the village – but she gets knowing looks from Ruby, Tiana, and Aurora.

 

“Are you sure you haven’t found your soulmate, Emma?” Ruby asks her, her brow raised.

 

Emma rolls her eyes as she finishes packing the few belongings she plans on taking with her. She double checks her backpack for the magical bean before answering, “Not everyone’s life revolves around soulmates, you know.”

 

“Oh, I know. I haven’t found mine and I’m perfectly content this way…” Ruby agrees. “Aurora, on the other hand…”

 

“He’s _the_ one. I know it was only one dream, but I felt like I knew him,” Aurora hurries to explain. “But he seems like royalty from a far-off land and I don’t know how to find him.”

 

“So, Emma, there’s no one?” Tiana asks.

 

“I’m sure he has to be your soulmate or otherwise you wouldn’t be going,” Aurora says. “You chose to leave so suddenly.”

 

“I promise there’s no man involved,” Emma says and rolls her eyes internally. “And I might come back if I can’t find what I’m looking for.” She’s still rather certain she won’t. At least not right away. Once she sets her mind on something, she won’t give up without a fight.

 

“Is there a woman involved then?” Ruby asks surprisingly calmly, and Emma’s blood runs cold. _How?_

 

Ruby must’ve seen her facial expression change, because suddenly the girl’s face lights up. “Nothing wrong with that, Emma. Between you and I, I really don’t know if my soulmate would be a man or a woman or something else. Maybe I don’t even have one.” The girl shrugs.

 

“I think you’ll find someone,” Aurora says. “And Emma, you know, that’s not unheard of.”

 

“You know Maid Marian of the Merry Men?”  Tiana adds when Emma feigns confusion. “I heard she found her soulmate to be one of the royal guards, a woman called Mulan. I think Mulan joined the Merry Men… Or maybe they’re the Merry Women now…”

 

Emma’s heart rate soon returns to normal when she listens to the three girls talk about Maid Marian and Mulan with no resentment in their voices. Maybe she and Regina could do what they had. Would Regina actually leave her life when it came to choosing what to do? The girl had said she just wanted to be free, but Emma isn't sure what that entails.

 

“There might be,” she says as she throws her bag over her shoulder. “And I’m gonna find her.”

 

* * *

 

It takes Emma a few days and nights to find Regina. She travels by foot, but she doesn’t get lost after finding the biggest lake of the Enchanted Forest. After that, she follows the shoreline towards King Leopold’s castle in hopes of finding the smaller castle Regina mentioned. The King’s castle is rather easy to recognize since she’s seen it before in the horizon during all the other times she’s been on the beach; now she just must trek towards it.

 

When she gets near the castle, she asks local townspeople if they’ve heard of a person who’s looking for a new stablehand. After two false alarms, she’s finally guided towards a small castle by a meadow that’s so similar to the one from Emma’s dream that she knows she’s on the right path.

 

She walks towards the stables, her heart pounding so loudly that she feels like she might faint right there and never meet Regina in person. What if Regina’s in the stables? What if it’s her mother instead? She pictures several possible scenarios as her stomach tightens and her hands sweat, but when she eventually sees someone, it’s neither Regina nor the girl’s mother.

 

There’s an older balding man in fancy clothing by the stables. He’s petting a chestnut horse’s chest and talking to him in a language Emma doesn’t recognize, and she can’t help but notice that the horse is very similar to the one from her and Regina’s joint dream.

 

“Hello,” Emma starts carefully. “Sir.”

 

The man raises his gaze from the horse and smiles at her. Even though he seems slightly confused at the unknown visitor, his dark eyes seem kind. “How may I help you?”

 

“I…” Emma starts. She tries to make her voice stable despite the adrenaline running in her veins. “I heard that you’re looking for a stablehand?”

 

“Ah,” the man says, confusion leaving his face. “That would be correct. Do you have experience with working as a stablehand?”

 

“Well, back home, I worked at the stables among other things,” she says. “And I heard that you need one here, so I thought I should ask.”

 

“I see,” the man says as he gives her a nod of approval. “We indeed do need one since our old one found a job somewhere else and our daughter has a lot of other things to attend to.” His face becomes thoughtful and Emma can see a hint of distress before he starts talking again. “You can show me what you know, and I’ll talk to my wife next.”

 

Regina’s mother. Emma fights the impending feeling of doom in her gut and takes a deep breath. Regina’s mother can’t know anything. Regina wouldn’t tell her, and it’s impossible to invade other people’s dreams, even with magic.

 

“Sure,” she says and gets to work.

 

It all goes well. The man – his name is Henry, and he wants Emma to use his first name whenever she talks to him – says that he’s more than happy with what he’s seen, and if his wife agrees, Emma can start working straight away.

 

Emma is sure she’s at the right place when Henry introduces her to his wife; the red-haired woman is an exact replica of the woman from Regina’s nightmare. Even though Emma didn’t see all that much of her, she’s certain this is Regina’s mother.

 

“If he thinks you’re suitable for the job, I suppose you can manage it,” the woman who has introduced herself as Cora Mills says with a faux smile on her lips. “I’ll come to the stables myself to see to make sure he was right.”

 

“Thank you, ma'am,” Emma says as they start walking back to the stables.

 

“You may stay in the room that’s attached to the stables. It’s where our last stablehand stayed,” Cora explains, and Emma nods.

 

Despite her initial nervousness, everything goes fine. She shows Cora her skills with the horses, and the woman nods curtly every once in a while.

 

“You’ll do. If everything’s alright after a seven days’ time, you can stay permanently until I state otherwise,” Cora explains, her expression still neutral.

 

“Thank you, ma’am,” Emma repeats, although all she wants to do is to punch Cora in the face. She controls herself and concentrates on the fact that she’ll probably meet Regina if she doesn’t start a fight with Cora and die in the process.

 

“Mother, I heard that there’s a new–” a familiar voice around the corner says.

 

Emma turns her gaze away from the horse she’d been feeding, looks at the entrance of the stable, and sees her. Regina is standing here, right in front of her, and she’s even more beautiful than in their shared dreams. Both of them are suddenly speechless, although Regina seems to regain her speaking abilities first and turns to look at her mother instead.

 

“I suppose this is the new stablehand,” Regina says so casually Emma doesn’t know how she does it.

 

“Yes, Regina. Why do you look like you’ve seen a ghost?” Cora says, her eyes moving from one girl to another.

 

“Oh, I… I suppose I was expecting a man. No reason,” she says and turns to Emma. “So you’re the stablehand?”

 

“Hi,” Emma says and flashes Regina an awkward smile.

 

“Regina. Don’t be so closed-minded. A woman can do the same job as a man can. You must know that.”

 

“Oh, I know, but I don’t know if you do,” Regina mutters as she moves closer to the horse to pet him.

 

“I will not have you talk to me like that,” Cora says as she flicks her wrist, and the expression on Regina’s face changes and her hand flies to her throat. “Understood?”

 

Regina simply nods, her eyes wide. Emma is fairly certain she’s unable to speak; Cora has used magic on her. Emma’s hands ball into fists.

 

“Good. Now go upstairs and change. We will have dinner guests and I won’t have you looking like a child instead of a lady when we have people over.”

 

Regina throws one last look at Emma and walks away, her hand still on her throat.

 

“Children. You give everything you have for them, and they just…” Cora waves her hand dismissively. “Anyway, I will have someone bring you dinner here after we have eaten. Welcome to the Mills’.”

 

Cora walks away without looking back and leaves Emma alone in the stables. Emma tries to even her breath and calm down, but when she looks down, she can see crescents on her skin from squeezing her hands into fists so hard.

 

* * *

 

Emma half expects Regina to return to the stables later that night, but she ends up disappointed: the only person she sees is the maid (who introduces herself as Ashley) bringing her some leftovers of the food from the dinner party. Even though they’re leftovers, they’re still tastier than the food Emma’s used to, and she eats until there’s nothing left on her plate.

 

After sunset, she tries to fall asleep, but she can’t help but to wonder if coming here was a mistake. It’s the way she often does things: she acts first and asks questions later. It’s gotten her in trouble in the past, and she hopes the same pattern won’t repeat itself now.

 

Cora’s words and Regina’s hand on her throat are still vivid in her mind as she wonders what it must be like for Regina to live here. She tosses and turns for hours until she finally drifts to sleep, her thoughts still on Regina. The next thing she knows, she wakes up in a fancy bed somewhere else, and it doesn’t take her long to realize that she’s dreaming.

 

What shocks her is that there’s someone else next to her in the bed, and when that someone else turns around, she’s faced with Regina.

 

“Emma?” Regina hisses. “How did you get here? The door has been sealed by magic ever since I first decided to run away. If Mother sees you…”

 

“Relax. This is a dream. Coming here and sleeping in your bed without asking you first would be… really creepy.”

 

“Right,” Regina says, her voice louder now that she seems to have realized no one is going to hear her even if she’s not whispering. “I can't believe it. I saw you today. You found me.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Regina doesn't say anything for a while. The girl’s face is obscured by shadows, so Emma can hardly see her expression, but eventually she makes out a beautiful set of teeth when the girl smiles. “Thank you.”

 

There's a silence between them until Regina moves closer to her and her lips are on Emma's once again. She kisses her hard and deep as if letting go would result in waking up. Emma enjoys how Regina's hands first find her cheeks and then slide onto her neck, and before she knows it, one of Regina's hands is on her breast.

 

Emma lets out a small groan and regrets her reaction instantly when Regina pulls away as if she's been burned.

 

“I'm sorry,” the other girl says. “I didn't mean to... you know. I'm sorry about that.”

 

“Why are you apologizing?”

 

“I'm… I shouldn’t be doing that, right?” Regina says, her voice uncertain.

 

Emma realizes there are many reasons why Regina might feel like that, her upbringing being different from her own, but she doesn’t want to assume anything, so she asks, “Why?”

 

“Well,” Regina starts, weighing her words. “I _did_ just meet you in person for the first time.” She stays quiet for a moment and continues, “And I’m pretty sure what I just did would be… frowned upon before marriage.”

 

“Oh, we can always wait until we get married,” Emma says, not wanting to pressure Regina into anything. “We don’t have to do anything you don’t wanna do.”

 

The room goes silent, and Emma doesn’t even realize what she’s said until she can hear Regina’s amused voice. “Does that mean that you _want_ to get married?”

 

“I–” Emma ponders the question since she hasn’t really had much time to think about it before. Marriage has always seemed like more of a deal between two families to her; only a lucky few get to marry their soulmates. She hadn’t thought she’d be fortunate enough to even _meet_ Regina, so she hadn’t considered the prospect of spending the rest of her life with her; the thought seems odd. She hasn’t had much of a permanent person in her life before, and it’s weird to think that she might get to spend the rest of hers with her soulmate. “If that’s what you want, yeah. What do you want?”

 

“Hm,” Regina mutters amusedly.

  
“What?” Emma says, afraid that she’s said something wrong.

 

“I guess no one’s ever really asked me that,” the girl says and stays quiet for a while. “I just... want to be free and run away so I don't have to marry any of the old men Mother wants me to marry.” She stops. “I'd really like to know you better instead.”

 

Emma can't suppress a smile. “Yeah, me too. I mean, getting to know you.”

 

“Yeah?"

 

"Yeah."

 

So they talk. Regina tells her how she just wants to be free and ride horses, but her mother wants her to marry well so that they’ll achieve wealth Cora never had in her youth. She tells Emma about her father who she loves dearly, and Emma tells her she’s never really had parents and how she’s always wanted to find a home.

 

Eventually they lay down in bed because they're tired (or so they say, even though they’re both still technically asleep) and Emma tentatively brings her hand on Regina's waist. Her movement seems to be more than welcome as the other girl pulls her closer so that her back is against Emma's front. It feels nice, the kind of closeness Emma has never experienced, and she knows she wants to spend the rest of her days like this, by Regina's side.

 


End file.
